High Level DHS Official Says Hate Crime Suspect Lacked ‘American Values’ As Dad Was Once Undocumented Immigrant

Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, Acting Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security

A tweet by acting DHS deputy secretary Ken Cuccinelli (@HomelandKen) that suggested the suspect in the New York Hanukkah stabbings is a US citizen who had not assimilated appears to have been deleted or removed pic.twitter.com/xo7Nc2iw8x

— Ted Hesson (@tedhesson) December 30, 2019

Jeffrey Martin for Newsweek reports on a troubling story coming in the wake of an apparent hate crime directed at Hasidiuc Jews in New York.  In a tweet yesterday that has been deleted, acting Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Ken Cuccinelli seemed to imply that the suspect in a hate crime committed the act because his father had been an undocumented immigrant.

“The attacker is the US Citizen son of an illegal alien who got amnesty under the 1986 amnesty law for illegal immigrants,” Cuccinelli tweeted. “Apparently, American values did not take hold among this entire family, at least this one violent, and apparently bigoted, son.”

Criticism of the tweet followed.  David Lapan, a former department spokesman, accused Mr. Cuccinelli of “fear-mongering” and sending a political message to Stephen Miller, the architect of hard-line immigration policies at the White House.  For more criticism, click here and here.

“I see no relevance at all, especially today at this early stage, and that’s what’s really distasteful,” Mr. Lapan said. “Inside 48 hours of this horrific incident happening he’s already trying to leverage it for his own and Stephen Miller’s own agenda on immigration.”

KJ